Paperwork, red tape leads to burnout on community league projects: volunteers

Jens Deppe, board member with the Allendale Community League, said it took six years of paperwork compared to three weeks of construction to get their community garden built because of the city's onerous system.Ed Kaiser / Postmedia

Edmonton’s approval process for neighbourhood tennis courts, gardens and other amenities is so frustrating it burns out earnest volunteers, community league members told city councillors Monday.

“The project itself is not the hard part … It’s the paperwork,” said Lori Kraus, after the Grandview Heights Community League struggled to refinish its tennis courts and build a facility for beach volleyball.

“The burden on our volunteers is overwhelming,” said Jens Deppe, who saw a simple attempt to build a community garden take six years for the Allendale Community League.

The comments came during council’s first community services committee meeting of the term as councillors reviewed a matching grant system from the city for community leagues.

Deppe said each time the group met with the city, they were forced to get more information and justify the project again. Staff would ask question after question without offering solutions or sharing best practices.

At one point, city officials forced the group to delay for a year to test the ground under asphalt they wanted to remove for the garden, he said. They spent $4,000 to do that but, the following year, new city staff said that actually wasn’t necessary because the group planned to use raised beds.

Edmonton’s community leagues are important for building and maintaining neighbourhood amenities, but the city is causing headaches for — rather than supporting — the small number of volunteers in each community, Deppe said. “It’s a system that’s highly lauded, but it’s crumbling before our eyes.”

Council members expressed concern. “The project chart looks a bit like a labyrinth,” said Coun. Michael Walters.

Coun. Mike Nickel added, “I have community leagues who hire professional grant writers to navigate the system.”

City manager Linda Cochrane said the issue was that several community league projects ballooned larger than expected in the past. That led to the new oversight system.

“We might have overcompensated,” she said. “We wanted to make sure we wouldn’t get burnt again.”

New working group

Committee voted for officials to write a report on how it would organize a working group with community leagues to solve the issues. That report is due back in February, with the working group to follow.

“I want to … make sure the right people are in the room,” said Walters, whose inquiry started the discussion.

Coun. Tony Caterina pushed the city to re-consider its policy against allowing corporations or other organizations to include logos in items associated with a project where they provide sponsorship funding. That’s been a barrier for community groups trying to raise funds.

Cochrane said that doesn’t “seem unreasonable” and promised to report back. It would mean revising the city’s parkland bylaw.

Community league members speak Monday about the onerous paperwork of the city’s granting program.Elise Stolte

Policing demands outstrip budget

Edmonton will collect roughly $500,000 in tax dollars annually from the proposed annexation lands south of the city, said Mayor Don Iveson.

That makes the $4.3 million per year request from police to patrol the area a tough sell, he said, as police brought the funding request forward Monday.

Supt. Chad Tawfik said 25 new officers would be required if Edmonton wants to maintain the current seven-minute response time, 80 per cent of the time, for Priority 1 calls. That’s because the size of the annexation request would increase Edmonton’s land mass by 12.8 per cent and increase driving times. It only adds about 800 new residents.

But council members wondered if the existing seven-minute response time is the right target.

“Is it reasonable to expect a seven-minute response time in a rural area?” said Iveson, before referring the matter back to deliberate again early next year. He asked police to explore options to create a rural service level for low-density areas in Edmonton.

Police would need the money approved during the 2018 spring budget debate to hire and train officers to be ready for January 2019. That’s when Edmonton and Leduc County have asked the province to transfer the land.

The 25 new officers would include two to patrol Highway 19, and three to increase Edmonton’s stretched tactical unit and other specialized areas.

Problem properties

Meanwhile, Caterina took staff to task for what he called slow progress on problem properties Monday, urging them to enforce the bylaw requirement that every home with three rental suites needs a business licence.

That came during a wide-ranging debate on the next priorities for council’s community services committee.

If the business licence requirement is enforced, officials could remove the licence where properties are consistently associated with noise, mess and violence in the neighbourhood, he said at committee. “You’ve already identified properties that have been problems for years.”

Branch manager Rob Smyth said his team has identified 17 to 19 of the most serious locations and is meeting every two weeks with the law branch and enforcement officials to make individual plans. They are also looking at demolition orders.

But Ryan Pleckaitis, the city director who oversees that project, cautioned any action will take time if it gets appealed in court.

Building community connection

Caterina also pushed for a greater investment in Abundant Communities, a program that facilitates neighbours connecting with each other by setting up dog-walking clubs, beer hockey leagues, shinny hockey nights and other activities.

City officials planned to cut resources back to just half an employee position, with some restructuring so all staff embedded in neighbourhoods would be able to run the program. Instead, council will look at increasing the budget to support a staff equivalent to 3-1/2 full-time positions during the fall budget discussions.

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